


children of dust and ashes

by fantasticfours



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Hood: Lost Days
Genre: ? - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Gen, I changed the title, Minor Violence, Past Character Death, Self-Indulgent, au where: bruce kills the joker + nothing changed but jason comes back to him sooner, it used to be just dust and ashes, joker dies, the character death is jason and the joker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 07:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12699894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantasticfours/pseuds/fantasticfours
Summary: In front of him, this man stands, and he taunts him, and he laughs. He laughs and laughs and laughs – and it’s all Bruce can think: Did you laugh as you beat my son to a bloody pulp? Did you laugh as he died in that explosion?The Joker killed Bruce's son. // Jason's murderer is dead.





	children of dust and ashes

**Author's Note:**

> so this timeline is. all over the place + the entire thing's kinda disjointed but!! it was ...fun... to write?

Bruce Wayne stands in the middle of a warehouse in ruins, clutching at the body of his second son. His second son, who’s now dead.

His second son, who, judging from the bruises on his body – had been tortured for _hours_ before the actual explosion that had killed him, that Bruce had been too late to save him from.

Bruce Wayne stands in the middle of a warehouse in ruins, and, as he clutches the body of his second son, he cries, and curses the one who did this.

+

The autopsy report comes back. It wasn’t the explosion _or_ the torture that killed Jason – he was gone hours earlier, from smoke inhalation.

Even if Bruce had gotten there earlier, he would have been too late. His son would have died anyway.

At least maybe then he would have died in his arms, have died surrounded by people he loved and who loved him. At least, maybe then, he wouldn’t have died alone, protecting the woman who got him in that situation in the first place.

+

Bruce keeps expecting to see Jason running through the manor, to see Jason reading in the library, to see Jason cooking with Alfred – to see Jason.

It’s a bitter reminder, to open the door to his room and expect him to come bounding out, only to remember that he’s dead. He’ll never see Jason alive again.

Alfred and Dick and Barbara look at him with pity every time it happens. He’ll hear light footsteps coming down the stairs into the Batcave and call for him, _Jason_ , only to turn around and see it’s one of them instead, and they’ll shake their heads and pity him.

Vaguely, sometimes Bruce remembers that they’re mourning him too. That he wasn’t just Bruce’s son, he was Dick’s brother, Barbara’s friend, Alfred’s grandchild.

+

They put up a memorial for Jason in the cave. A plaque reads _A Good Soldier_.

Bruce can’t look at it, because Jason was _so much more_ , he was a great son and he was smart and dedicated and funny and passionate and deserved better than simply _A Good Soldier_.

+

The next time Bruce sees the Joker, he feels sick to his stomach.

This is the man, the _thing_ , that tortured his son. Murdered his son.

In front of him, this man stands, and he _taunts_ him, and he _laughs_. He laughs and laughs and laughs – and it’s all Bruce can think: _Did you laugh as you beat my son to a bloody pulp? Did you laugh as he died in that explosion?_

Bruce feels sick to his stomach, and acting on instinct, he takes out a batarang – one of the sharp ones, the ones he makes it a point to never throw at people because they’ll cause too much damage, the ones he keeps in a whole separate compartment in his belt.

In his rage, Bruce takes out a batarang, and throws it right at the Joker’s heart.

Then he takes out another, and throws it again, followed by another and another.

The Joker is dead. The man who murdered his son is dead, and faintly, Bruce notices – there’s no blood on the Batsuit.

There was when Jason died.

+

Dick and Alfred and Barbara all look at Bruce with something akin to horror – and pity. Always that damn pity.

Dick chokes out his name, and Barbara’s crying silent tears, and Alfred’s not saying anything but Bruce knows he’s thinking it – and he wants to scream, he wants to yell at all of them, _He killed my son, he tortured and murdered him and then he had the audacity to taunt me about it and tell me how Jason screamed as he died_.

He wants to scream, but he doesn’t, instead just turning away from all their looks. He takes off the cowl and takes off the cape, and hangs them on a hook next to Jason’s memorial, choking out something about how there’s _still no blood on the suit_ – and suddenly Dick’s parroting back his own words about killing and how Batman couldn’t kill because then _he would never stop_ –

But Bruce can’t say a word back.

+

He doesn’t regret it. Killing him might not have brought Jason back but it _avenged_ him, Jason was avenged the way Bruce himself had wished that his parents would be, when he was younger.

Part of him tries to rationalise it – _I did it so that he couldn’t hurt, kill, maim – so that no one else would be robbed of their friends, families, mothers, fathers… sons._

+

Jason doesn’t know what’s happened to him or why, but he’s trapped. He’s trapped and he can’t get out, and he doesn’t have any of his weapons on him.

 _Bruce_ , he yells, _Bruce!_

He claws at the woody roof, and then the walls, and both feel like they’re closing in on him. He continues to claw his way out, and it must have worked, because next thing he knows, he’s breathing in air and blood is running down his hands and fingers.

It’s raining. _Bruce!_

Jason doesn’t know where to go, but he knows that he shouldn’t be _here_. He starts walking.

+

The public knows the Joker is dead. They don’t know that it was Batman who did it.

Bruce likes it that way. He does what he can to keep it that way.

Dick and Barbara and Alfred keep looking at him strangely, like he’ll snap again, and kill someone else, but Bruce can’t do anything about that.

He thinks some of the Rogues know, however. He’ll hear whispers of it sometimes; _Don’t touch Batman’s kids. Don’t rough up the Robins too bad. Joker did and Batman killed him._

He can’t really do anything about that either, but Bruce isn’t sure he minds. It means that at least, they don’t go rough on Dick anymore.

He still can’t get back Jason, but maybe this means that he won’t have to lose another son.

He doesn’t think he could take that.

+

Jason walks and keeps walking. It’s still raining, but he doesn’t feel cold. He’s shivering anyway.

His hands are still bleeding.

Eventually, after a lot of walking, Jason comes to a road; now that he’s there, though, he doesn’t know what to do.

Everything in him is telling him to go find Bruce. Somehow, he can’t remember who that is.

He keeps walking, only to stop in the middle of the road when he sees lights coming towards him. Whatever it is is going to hit him, and he can’t make himself move.

+

There’s a boy, Timothy Drake. Bruce knows him – his parents are Jack and Janet Drake, and they run in a lot of the same circles. Bruce is sure he’s seen Timothy running around at some gala or another. He’s even pretty sure that he and Jason had talked at quite a few of them.

Timothy tells Bruce that he figured out Batman and Robin’s identities years ago, and then says to him that Batman needs a Robin. He says that he’s noticed Bruce getting more violent with criminals – knows it was him who killed the Joker – and that another Robin can stop him from doing that again.

Bruce doesn’t _want_ a new Robin. Jason’s death was proof enough that this is too dangerous for children, especially children like Timothy Drake, who are sheltered and don’t know how bad it can _get_ in Gotham, in the world.

Bruce tells Timothy that. He just tells him to call him Tim, since they’ll obviously be seeing so much more of each other now.

+

The next time Jason opens his eyes, the light hurts his head. He’s in a hospital bed, that he can tell, but he doesn’t know _why_.

He just knows that he can’t stay here. He pushes himself out of the bed and starts walking.

No one comes to stop him. He just walks right out of the hospital.

Jason doesn’t know that he’s been in a coma for a year. No one comes because they didn’t think he would ever wake up. They saw movement in his room and put it down to the wind, or an animal – it wasn’t until the next day, when his bed was found empty, that they realise it was _him_.

+

Bruce keeps calling Timothy by Jason’s name.

It’s not that they’re really that alike – Bruce could name more differences than he could similarities. Jason liked to read, Timothy preferred the computer; Jason was easily angered, Timothy was calm no matter what happened; Jason would skip patrol to do his homework and Timothy would drop out of school if it meant he could be Robin full time.

No, it’s not because they’re alike – it’s just that seeing a young boy in the Robin suit and it _not_ being Jason still doesn’t sit right with him.

It didn’t happen when Dick left – by the time that Jason became Robin, Dick had been working on his own for a while. But having a new Robin so soon after Jason’s death – it feels _wrong_.

Bruce knows that Timothy notices, but he doesn’t say anything about it, which Bruce appreciates.

+

Jason spends a year back on the streets. His instincts protect him, keep him from dying. Again.

Then, one day, a man decides that Jason was sleeping in _his_ spot. He tries to fight him, hurt him.

It triggers some memory in Jason. He can’t let himself get hurt like this – and so he fights back. He flips and throws things, and he protects himself.

When the man is unconscious, Jason stops and goes back to sleep.

Two days later, a different man knocked _Jason_ unconscious and he was taken _somewhere_.

+

There’s a woman, who comes to see Jason sometimes. She’s nice to him – the only one here who is.

She sits next to him and calls him by his name and tells him stories, and by her third visit Jason decides he likes her.

He’s sure she’s told him her name, but he can never remember it. He knows it starts with a T.

Sometimes, she’ll bring a young boy with her. She calls them brothers, and the boy seems to like that because he starts coming to talk to Jason too. He can’t be older than six years old.

The boy leaves his lessons to come sit with Jason. He’ll talk on and on, sometimes in English, sometimes in Arabic. The boy tells him about everything from his lessons to his plans for the future. His words are accented, and Jason can’t help but think it’s cute.

Eventually, the boy starts coming around with books from the library. He sits with Jason, sometimes beside him and sometimes in his lap, and he’ll read to him.

It makes Jason happy.

He decides he likes the boy as well.

+

Barbara and Dick aren’t as wary around Bruce as they used to be. Alfred was never really as suspicious as they were; he was disappointed, sure. But not suspicious.

Barbara and Dick on the other hand, they were both. He couldn’t see either of them without a judging look sent his way, and it hurt sometimes that his son didn’t trust him. Even when Jason had first become Robin, when the relationship between the two of them was at its worst, Dick had always had faith in Bruce.

Now things are almost back to how they used to be with them. It’s… it’s good.

Things are even getting better with Timothy. Bruce will still sometimes see Robin and think it’s Jason, but not nearly as much as he used to. Bruce thinks that maybe, eventually, he might see Timothy as he does Jason and Dick. Not as a son, because he still has his parents, but… as family.

+

The woman is leading Jason somewhere.

He follows happily; she’s always been good to him, and he trusts her not to hurt him.

They’re going down. Jason can feel it, and it’s strange – he’s never been down this part of _here_ before.

She stops outside a door, and takes his hand. “Jason, I am sorry for this.” Then she pushes open the door, and next thing he knows he’s been thrown into water – but it’s green and it burns him, like fire.

The memories come all at once, and all of a sudden he _knows who he_ is. He’s _Jason Peter Todd_ , he was _Robin_. He worked with Batman – Bruce Wayne! Bruce! – _until_ the Joker killed him, murdered him.

Then the woman – _Talia al Ghul_ – yells at him to come with her.

He feels like he should trust her, and so he does – but not before yelling back at her and _he can speak!_

Why that’s such a surprise to him, he doesn’t know. He’s always been able to speak, hasn’t he?

Talia leads him to a cliff, and before he can ask why, she pulls him to her and kisses him. He doesn’t even have time to process it before she throws a bag into his arm, and then throws him into the water.

He panics. He’ll admit it; he panics. He keeps a hand on the bag, and starts swimming to the nearest shore.

When he gets there, the first thing he does is open the bag. What could Talia have considered so important that she would leave it for him?

Why would Talia do anything for him, period?

The first thing he sees is money, a lot of it. He puts it to the side; he could need it later.

Under that is a bunch of newspaper clippings.

**_No News of the Joker_ **

**_Joker Dead?_ **

Jason’s eyes are tearing up. His murderer is dead. He’s safe, the Joker won’t be able to hurt anyone again.

_Wait… who killed him?_

_“There is some speculation, especially amongst criminals, that it was Batman who finally killed the Joker…”_

Jason’s head is spinning. He has to get to Gotham, as quickly as possible.

+

Bruce thinks that he might have finally separated Tim and Jason.

It isn’t instinct now to see Robin and call him Jason. Tim is his own Robin, and Bruce has to admit – though he wasn’t happy about him taking on the position in the first place, he’s damn good at it, especially the part that comes with detecting, and figuring out cases.

Jason’s death still hurts, but it’s not as… ever-present as it was before.

+

A few days after finding out that the Joker, Jason stands in front of the front door of the Manor, and before he can convince himself not to, he rings the doorbell.

He prays that it’ll be answered.

+

Bruce sighs as he hears the doorbell ring through the Manor.

Alfred’s on a forced holiday – Dick and Tim had both agreed with Bruce when he said that Alfred needed some time to himself – and Tim was with the Teen Titans, meaning that Bruce is alone in the house… and has to answer the door himself.

He pushes himself to his feet, ready to glare at whoever disturbed his work.

+

Jason already regrets pushing the doorbell. He was dead, Bruce thought he was dead, he’d probably already gotten over his death – after all, right after seeing that the Joker was dead, he saw that he’d been replaced as Robin.

 _This was a bad idea,_ he thinks to himself, and turns to leave.

+

Bruce’s hand is on the doorknob, and with a sigh he turns the knob, opening it – only to see a kid walking away, body hunched over – and he shouldn’t, but he _knows_ that kid, that hunch.

That kid was _dead_. He’d been dead for three years.

And yet, Bruce can’t stop himself from running after him.

_Jason!_

+

Jason stops as soon as he hears his name. It’s quiet, at first, almost like Bruce is about to cry, and then it’s louder – and before Jason knows it, he’s in Bruce’s arms, and they’re both crying.

 _Bruce,_ Jason cries, _Dad._

+

Bruce looks at the boy and thinks he’s Jason – but the detective in him has to be sure. He asks for a DNA sample, and Jason doesn’t hesitate before cutting off a few strands of his hair – his hair, which has gone from simply black to having a shock of white, just as his eyes have gone from a teal blue colour to bright green.

Bruce runs the hair through his database, and an hour later it’s been confirmed – the boy in front of him is really Jason.

His second son, the one who died, who Bruce killed for, was back from the dead.

Bruce cries, and so does Jason, and Bruce walks forward and captures Jason in a hug.

He’s so much bigger now.

Bruce holds him against his chest, and whispers, _Jason_.

Jason just tightens his grip, and replies, “Bruce.”

**Author's Note:**

> i'm? sorry? this is so bad
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](http://wwwlw.tumblr.com/)


End file.
